Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-11-05
MATTERS IN OLD MEXICO,
TIE GOOD FRAY MARTIN Y4LEN.
GA AND HIS CAVE.
A Wonderful Image of Christ-Po-
litical Troubles Brewing Be
tween Church and State.

tween Church and State.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION
AMEcA- MEGA, Mexico, Oct 26, 1887.
This old, old town, which was flourish
ing at its best century before Columbus
discovered America, increases in interest
on closer acquaintance, and the longer one
remains here the harder it becomes to tear
ones-self away. Traditions abound, and
besides historical and archaeological inter
est, halo of religious sentiment pervades
the place.
Immediately back of Ameca-meca, rising
from the midst of a great, green valley of
the same name-a veritable Sleepy Hol-
low, surrounded by hills and over shad-
swed by the twin volcanoes-rises the
Sacre-monte, like huge wart, several hun
dred hundred feet above the plain. In
this land of mountains nearly every CITY
has its calvary, or Holy Hill but next to
Guadalupe, near the City of Mexico, this
Of Ameea-meca is most prominent in the
religious history of Mexico The famous
FRAY MARTIN VALENCIA
One of the country's twelve apostles"-
once lived in cave in the heart of the
Sacre-monte. The Indians, far and near.
greatly loved this good Father, and every
year immense crowds made pilgrimage to
this rocky sanctuary. 1t is related that
the pious Fray tanned the widest animals
OF the adjacent nights, as well as the little
creatures OF the woods, so that they all
came at his bidding, and even lived with
him in the cavern. The birds, too, knew
the gentle Father, and gathered in great
numbers to sing their sweetest songs at the
entrance to his gloomy abode. He died at
last, in village forty miles away, whittier
he had gone on an errand of mercy but the
Indians brought his body, in solemn pro-
cession, to the Sacred Mountain, and
buried it in his cavern-home, which has
now become the cdmd,illa of a shrine.
Within this dim little chamber is fear
fully realistic image of the dead Christ
which-so says tradition-was placed there
by Fray Martin himself as early as 1927.
Another legend asserts that burro Mex
lean donkey, carrying images to the ca
thedral at Puebla, broke away from his
master and found his way to this cave,
where he patiently waited for some days,
with the dead Christ upon his back, till
Father Martin came and unloaded him !;
and so the good Fray believed that the
mule was divinely sent to deposit the
image in this particular shrine.
Like others near to Natures heart.
whose uncultivated minds are like fallow
fields, these simple people furnish excel
lent soil for the growth of superstitions.
A tiny seed of it, once sown in their fertile
imaginations speedily attains such sturdy
growth that nothing can uproot it. Doubt
less such was the case with the denizens of
Nazareth, Judea and Galilee some eighteen
centuries and half ago.
The dead Christ above referred to is GER
tainly marvellous work, being the lightest
life-size image in the world, for, though
large as man, it weighs scarcely two
pounds 1t is believed to have been made
OF the pith of corn-stalks prepared and ce-
mented by some sort of gum impervious to
the atmosphere; but by whom it was
made or by what mysterious process, no
human being knows.
EVERY YEAR, DURING HOLY WEEK,
Ameca-meca is crowded to its utmost ca
pacity by thousands who come long dis
tances on pilgrimages to the shrine. Then
the sacred image is taken out of its dim
cdnldritta and brought reverently dow the
mountain to be exhibited at grand fiesta
in the village church. At any rate, this
was done every holy week for more than
three hundred and fifty years-a kind of
Passion play being performed in the
church similar to that at Ober Ammer-
gau-until in 1856, when, for the first time
in all that long period, Fray Martins
dead Christ remained in its shrine, in ac-
cordance with the new law of the Liberal
party, prohibiting religious professions and
forbidding priests, nuns, ct al, to appear
upon the streets in sacerdotal robes, or in
other garb prescribed by Romish orders.
In the old days the return of the sacred
image to its cavern shrine in the darkness
OF Good Friday night up the winding
causeway of the mountain among the
signing pines, accompanied by vast pro-
eesslon OF Indians with torches, priests
nuns, monks and acolytes, in their respect
i've habits, must have furnished spectacle
as strange as dramatic; but now, unfortu-
nately, no longer to be seen in Mexico.
great many winding pathways inter
sect the sacred mountain, besides the
broad causeway of stone and mortar which
leads to the antique chapel on the sum
NIT. Along this causeway are fourteen
stations of the cross, representing the Incl
dents of our Sayior's journey to Calvary.
Deyout pilgrims make the entire ascent
over the rough stones on their knees. which
must, indeed, be penance of unusual Sc
verify, for we, though expert at mountain
GiInlflnn md i
"wlnded' by going up on foot.
portion OF the causeway is of adobe
clay, and here thousands of pious pilgrims
have tarried to moisten the earth and i'm
print thereon the mark of their own hands
and feet, with the sign of the Cross upon
them: The clay thus nodded has sun
baked to the hardness of brick, and now
looks odd enough tatooed with the i'm
press of fingers and toes. Besides this en-
during record of their faith, pilgrims are
IN the habit of hanging hairs from their
heads, or rags from the garments, upon the
branches of wayside trees, to insure to
themselves good luck, thus fringing the
route like rag-picker's paradise.
Ameca-meca got its first genuine shak-
ing up during the great earthquake of
1854. Even the saints were tumbled ont
of inches where they had reposed in peace
for centuries, and for several hours the
dreamy old town seemed thoroughly
aroused from its cematose condition
Within the last year plan has been set
on foot which promises to transform this
Sleepy Hollow into a place of great COM
mereial Importance. 1t is no less project
than
THE TUNSELING OF PoPocArAPETI.
Through the wall of the crater directly to
the immense sulphur beds inside of the
mountain, connecting the tunnel with
Ameca-meca by narrow-gsuge railway,
which, in turn, viii connect with the No
relos road, leading TO the National Capital.
A considerable amount OF money has been
subscribed for the enterprise, and the time
l. ut n,,I ,,-ln., Z. l. G